Ideally, this awesome person would like to spend around 6+ hours a week helping me around the studio. My schedule is very flexible, so I would be happy to work with you to find what kind of routine would be best.

My studio is now located in my house, in NE Portland, Oregon, just a couple of blocks from all kinds of food and coffee things...

SHIPPING: Packing and shipping etsy orders, twice a week. Packing and shipping art for shows, once a month.

IMAGES: Uploading images to etsy and my website. Scanning images for the books, organizing new prints and putting them in plastic sleeves.

ORDERING: Tracking print supply and ordering prints, ordering shipping supplies, ordering books, tracking and ordering art supplies as needed.

EVENTS: Responding to emails for requests to attend art fairs or book events, applying for events that need applications. Organization, prep, packing assistance for events. Possible paid travel opportunities to help with art events, book events, conferences, workshops, classes, and art shows.

PAINTING: Measuring and prepping canvases for book layout, painting mini painting backgrounds, painting mini painting edges, transferring images onto canvas.

PROMOTION: Putting together press pack, compiling list of press contacts, follow-up, updating mailing list.

I'm hoping to make this a paid position in the future, but for now, this won't be a paid internship, aside from the occasional event travel. I would love to feed you lunch, help you to get school credit, and teach you all that I can (and that you would care to know) about the children's book industry, illustration, my painting process, and how to run a very small arty business. 

If this sort of thing might interest you, please drop me a line at.... MAIL at JOHANNAWRIGHT.COM, or you can go to the contact page on this site and fill out a contact form.

Please feel free to pass this along to anyone in the Portland area that you think might be interested.

Thank you so much, I look forward to hearing from you. Yes, you!

New art for the Bethel Street Gallery in Honolulu.

"Mermaid Daughter" 12" x 12"

This is definitely a summer of newness...new things are forming all around. New books, new ideas, new paintings, new thoughts, and of course....this new little baby fish that I'm growing in my belly! 

Some days I feel like a noodle, swimming through the changes with the ease of an eel. Other days I feel like one of those busy little fish that dart around the sea, turning so fast you can barely imagine how they managed it, eyes wide. And yet, more and more I've been feeling like a great pufferfish. Uh, yeah.   

I turned into a pufferfish extraordinaire when I went lap swimming the other day... slid into a lane that was crowded with busy lunchtime swimmers, adjusted my goggles, and kicked off from the wall, thinking to myself, "I'll show ye, busy lap swimmers! I will swim just as fast as you!'  I'm not really sure what gave me this blast of delusion, but oh man, was I in for a shockaroo. 

Instead of the usual swift, free glide that I would normally feel when I kicked off from the wall, I just sort of...hung there, motionless in the water. No momentum. No water gushing past me as I started to swim. Nope. Just me, hanging in the water, my belly acting as a giant flotation device. I swam with everything I had, and still didn't really get anywhere, my body just kind of lulled back and forth, side to side as I exerted myself with extreme fishy gusto. Sigh..

It didn't take long before I accepted my fate, moved over to the quiet 'slow' lane where I belonged, and had a very relaxing, and enjoyable swim. Life seems to be a lot like that these days. Me, rushing forward, only to realize that it's better for me just to swim myself over to the slow lane, and go with the flow...

I was a guest speaker last week for the fabulous Victoria Jamieson during her Children's Book Intensive, at  PNCA. The students were friendly, everyone was patient and attentiive and asked brilliant questions. And get this, I actually had fun. A lot of fun. 

If only you could peek inside my brain and see how far I've come in the speaking-in-front-of-people department, you would stand up and give a little cheer. Or, at the very least, a tiny high five. 

Just a year or two before The Secret Circus came out, the thought of getting up in front of a group of folks and speaking for an hour, (an HOUR), was unthinkable. Totally impossible, like eating fourteen saltines in a minute.

Slowly but surely, when more and more bookish opportunities started popping up, public speaking became something for me to consider. I started doing events, and did just fine when it was just kids. But once a few adults were in the mix,  I transformed into a sweaty and nervous ferret with a shaky voice. 

Me and my sweaty-public-speaking-ferrett ways have come a  long way over the last two years, and I have the fine folks at Toastmasters, to thank for it. For those of you who don't know what Toastmasters is, you can read more about it right here. Basically, it's a really supportive and gentle place to practice public speaking. You get better and better at talking by assuming different roles within the meeting every week, speaking spontaneously on different topics, working your way through various speech manuals, and being evaluated by others in the group. 

As a matter-o-fact, a few weeks ago I actually finished my first Toastmaster's manual, and got a signed certificate that said I was a Competent Communicator.  Me! ME! A Competent Communicator. Yes! 

How many times in your adult life do you get a certificate for something big and scary that you've faced and become better at? Not many, my friends. Not many. 

So here's the thing, I want to make you a certificate, for anything at all. Seriously. Email me your achievement and mailing address, and I'll make a special certificate just for you. You can hang it on your fridge, or wave it in the air, or stuff it in a scrap book, or recycle it with your cereal boxes. Whatever you want! You deserve it!

Happy last days of July!